


Lagertha, Sigyn, & Skadi: you could not kill me if you tried for a hundred years.

by mercuryhatter



Series: Vikings and Deities [2]
Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-22
Updated: 2013-03-22
Packaged: 2017-12-06 03:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/731089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercuryhatter/pseuds/mercuryhatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lagertha, the warrior mother, and her goddesses, Victory and Vengeance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lagertha, Sigyn, & Skadi: you could not kill me if you tried for a hundred years.

_you could not kill me if you tried for a hundred years._

Lagertha grew up knowing that there were some things a woman had to make for herself. Not much was given to anyone freely, and even less to women. Safety, first and foremost; Lagertha learned quickly that her body, and the bodies of her sisters, were not safe unless she, Lagertha, made them that way. The eldest  of four daughters, Lagertha’s mother taught her early the vulnerable places of a man’s body, the household objects that could easily be made into weapons when needed, as well as the ins and outs of battle with a sword and shield. Lagertha excelled; she loved the feeling of a sword or an axe in her hand, loved the bruising slam of her shoulder as it drove her shield forward, loved the blood and sweat and dirt of battle. She liked less the battles she fought in her own home, protecting herself and her sisters, but she did take a certain grim satisfaction in every broken nose and stretch of burned skin that ensured at least one man would never feel quite so entitled to try taking what wasn’t his a second time. 

And if she’d been protective of her sisters as a girl, that was nothing to the surge of ferocious love she felt each time she brought a child into the world. From the moment they emerged, screaming and gore-covered (for childbirth was a battlefield all its own), she knew that she would kill and maim and, if necessary, sacrifice herself, all through the Nine Realms and back again for the sake of these little beings. 

She’d had to explain to Ragnar once why she most often directed her prayers to the Lady Sigyn, and not Thor or Odin or Frigg. Her husband had not fully understood as Lagertha told him of Sigyn, the Lady of the Staying Power, Sigyn, the Victorious, Sigyn, the Mourning Mother, the one who defied even Odin in her endless strength. He did at least understand when Lagertha, realizing that this was something she might never be able to convey, simply laughed and kissed him and said that at least she could sympathize with a goddess who’d married such an insufferable trickster.

It wasn’t such a far-fetched comparison, Lagertha reflected, her anger held in a tight little ball in her chest, right next to worry and love and her readiness to fight, as her husband sailed off to the West without her. She would stand by Ragnar even if all others cast him out, that was true. Sigyn had taught Lagertha her steadfastness as well as her victory. There was just one difference, she thought, as her hands tightened briefly on the shoulders of her children, and her eyes narrowed.

If anyone put her children in danger, be he beast, man, or god, and Ragnar stood in the way of their safety? Well, then she would take her cues from Skadi, that fearsome wintry goddess. Her hands would hold vengeance and she would do away with mercy. Her husband would be punished and bound as harshly as was Loki, but it would be Lagertha holding the fetters, Lagertha who placed the snake to drip its venom directly into her prisoner’s eyes, Lagertha’s laughter that echoed in the branches of Yggdrasil each time the world shook with the force of her prisoner’s agony.

Lagertha walked back to her house, her children running before her as they chattered in excited tones of ships and raids and treasure. Her back was straight and her heart was strong. To one side of her stood Victory. To the other, Vengeance. 


End file.
